This is the kind of crap I see every day in the local media. Arizona may be purple but we're still in the middle of Dumfukistan in the fifth largest city in the USA. This has got to be the most conservative large metropolis in the country, if not the world. If you remember, when Obama last came to visit there were wingnutzis walking the streets with assault rifles. Some folks around here think that this is still the wild west, vigilante justice and the whole nine yards.
Our local paper is the Arizona Republic, but we prefer to call it the Arizona Republican, I'll let you guess why. I'd estimate that at least 25% of their letters to the editor include the title phrase of this post, either implicitly or explicitly. Their website is even worse, this slogan ranks right up there with blaming illegal aliens for all the ills of society in prevalence.
Which is why I freaked when I was subjected to this same attitude here on The Daily Kos, as we like to consider this a progressive outpost of sanity in a fucked up propaganda machine. If you'd like to hear the story you can follow me over the fold, but beware...
Beyond here there be Dragons!!!
A couple of days ago a post was published, which I shall not call out specifically, practically celebrating the confirmation that a public option would not be included in the HCR legislation passed through reconciliation. I could spend a lot of time explaining why this pissed me off but it would probably be easier just to include a link to a post that explains it better than I can...
What the Media and Obama Never Understood About the Public Option
As I read through the comments in the aforementioned anonymous diary it dawned on me that I wasn't the only one who found this situation unacceptable, but apparently I was the only one with the unmitigated nerve to say exactly what I felt in my comment header:
Kill the bill! (1+ / 0-)
Recommended by:
xxxxxxxxxx (the name has been changed to protect the innocent)
An individual mandate without a public option is abhorrent!
I consider myself an Agnostic because the only thing I believe in less than God is certainty.
by aztronut...
Now let me regress a bit and explain my concept of respecting the opinions of others. This is something that I take very seriously. To me respect is not something you should have to earn, rather it should be something that is given freely as the default response or reaction to any serious attempt at interpersonal communication, or more generally to any other fellow human being. Disrespect is what is earned!
I demand that others treat me in the same manner, although of course that doesn't always happen. The failure to follow this rule is the surest path to earning my disrespect. I guess I'm just funny that way.
I expected to be attacked for waving my visceral reaction in the wind, considering all the divisiveness surrounding this issue around here. I was spoiling for a fight, a knock-down, drag-out exchange of opinions in a heated but mutually respectful discussion. What I didn't expect was to be told this:
I think you are in the wrong blog! n/t
To me this is saying, If You Don't Like It Then Just Move Somewhere Else! The attitude expressed is identical to the conservative mantra of the '60s: America, Love It or Leave It! Except this had now morphed into something much more irritating to me: Daily Kos, Love It or Leave It! It would have been easy for me to deal with this comment if it simply said, "I think you are in the wrong!" That would simply be an opinion to be respected instead of a dismissal of my position and a demand to STFU, get out of here and don't come back! The DK version of NIMBY.
This reply displayed a total lack of respect for my opinion. Naturally, I responded irrationally and said I would not be silenced, so go ahead and try to get rid of me. I then got this gem in response:
FDL likes to kill the bill...
With a prize inside, another slap to the face:
may be another venue to voice your lovely idea there?
By analogy, this provides the perfect appendage to the perverted manta:
If You Don't Like It Then Why Don't You Just Move To Another Country!
The kicker was the tag line:
...We have many more issues that bind us together than separate us!
To be fair, the second half of the comment body was: "if not, park it where ever you wish...the room is big enough for the likes of you as well." but I didn't even get that far at this point. I responded angrily, with my own prize inside:
Wait, I forgot, I can't show you that one any more because it got HRed by some TU with an attitude. But that's all really irrelevant at this point. I don't really care about the HRs, I don't even care if I get banned for life for this. Participating in the Daily Kos community is important to me, but not as important as the principle involved here.
I once was a TU, for about a year but eventually I failed to maintain enough of a presence to keep that status. In all that time I never gave out an HR, because I don't think anything should be hidden around here. I realize that this is a minority opinion but I'm of the ilk that thinks that all information is good and it's only what people do with it that's bad.
To me HCR is more than just a political calculation, it's about doing what's right! IMHO, the current Senate bill is an abomination. Beyond an individual mandate with no public option, which forces people to buy an inferior product from the private, for-profit health insurance cartel, there are plenty of other poison pills in it as well. Make no mistake about it, it is a cartel, with a congressional anti-trust exemption. There are a myriad of despicable pieces that supposedly can't or won't be fixed via reconciliation, including abortion restrictions and the so-called excise tax. Regardless, without a public option the whole thing is headed off in completely the wrong direction. It amounts to a huge public subsidy for the insurance industry, which you can rest assured will be pumped back into lobbying for even greater gifts.
As near as I can figure, the prevailing logic on HCR goes something like this...it would be political suicide to not pass some kind of legislation at this point, so let's just pass anything we can. I understand that position but I don't agree with it. Something, or anything in this instance, can be worse that nothing and I believe that what is currently in the pipeline is just that. It may not be political suicide but it's most assuredly more kabuki theater.
So that's my opinion, although I'm no longer spoiling for a fight. It's funny how there's always someone around who knows how to kick you right in the groin. I'm resigned to this whole thing being a disaster one way or the other. Apparently I've wasted my time writing fifteen different letters to my congressman over the past year pushing, pulling, pleading and begging for some kind of public option to be included in the legislation. I also sent probably half that many directly to Obama and I never got a direct response to my questions from either one of them. In addition I've sent a number of messages to both McCain and Kyl, but I never held out any hope for help from that direction. I won't even try to detail the phone calls and donations I've made to this cause, more money down the freakin' rat hole.
If you've gotten to this point, I hope you don't feel that I've wasted your time as well with this diary. If you do, I sincerely apologize. Wouldn't it be nice if all of us around here could respect each others opinions on this issue, as well as all of the others? As Rodney King famously said...
Can't we all just get along?